LIncoln Late 1980s and Early 1990s | Page 22 | Vital Football

LIncoln Late 1980s and Early 1990s

Brendan Bradley said:
You say "vibrant" @Sigiriya

I say ******* dangerous
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Lincoln could indeed be ******* dangerous. I was into the heavy rock scene in those days and dressed accordingly. Me and my mates in our little group may have looked a bit on the grotty and outlandish side, but none of us would have hurt a fly (can't claim that for everybody). It was quite extraordinary, however, how many people seemed to want to do us physical damage, quite often in broad daylight in Lincoln High Street on a Saturday afternoon. We called the High Street "Bandit Territory", and not without reason!
That said, Saturday afternoons could be fun. Our drinking den of choice in those days was Trilbys (later known as Rothschilds and Lasers), now Sugercubes. For a time it was the New Penny, before we settled on The Falstaff. I can remember staggering out of these venues on countless occasions and going for one cup of tea between 40 of us in Littlewoods café. During the summer the lads used to jump off High Bridge into the Witham before the powers that be put a stop to that. Dangerous days, but fun days as well!
 
Sigiriya said:
Lincoln could indeed be ******* dangerous
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Christmas 1977 I would think it was, I went to a gig involving a couple of minor punk rock groups at the Tech Coll on Monks Road. God only knows what it was actually like as you had to spend all the time attempting to avoid indiscriminate punch ups.

So it was in that era in the rare event that a name band performed at The Drill Hall. A friend suffered a fractured skull at one of those.

An evening at any new nightspot was a step into the unknown. The trouble was often caused by the same people, some of whom were engaged as door staff just to make their antics even more official. These were, generally, the same people who made Sincil Bank so unwelcoming for visitors when they weren't exporting their terror in the name of football.
 
Brendan Bradley said:
Christmas 1977 I would think it was, I went to a gig involving a couple of minor punk rock groups at the Tech Coll on Monks Road. God only knows what it was actually like as you had to spend all the time attempting to avoid indiscriminate punch ups.

So it was in that era in the rare event that a name band performed at The Drill Hall. A friend suffered a fractured skull at one of those.

An evening at any new nightspot was a step into the unknown. The trouble was often caused by the same people, some of whom were engaged as door staff just to make their antics even more official. These were, generally, the same people who made Sincil Bank so unwelcoming for visitors when they weren't exporting their terror in the name of football.
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Seem to remember the instance you mention about someone getting a fractured skull at a gig in Lincoln. Wasn't their that night, but went to a few Heavy Metal gigs at the Drill Hall in the early 1980s. Sweaty affairs, but usually good fun and good humoured.
 
B&Q is where the bit of Rustons I worked in between 1989 and 1991, it was called RB Lincoln by then following a management buy out a few years earlier.
The social club had already been demolished by then.
Percy Freeman worked in the plating bay during my time there.
 
Today's pictures mainly show views of the bridges over the River Witham at the end of Sincil Street. No flying Angels across the Witham in those days. Quite a few of the household name stores in these pics are no more, such as C&A and Woolworths. No more ABC/Canon cinema either. The boat in the penultimate picture was called the David and Roger, I believe, and was last owned by a Mr G Hewitt. It sank at the end of Jan/beginning of Feb, 1990 and ended its days as a wreck down on the banks of the Witham in the Stamp End area, as the last photo shows. There were quite a lot of Swans on the Witham in those days. Not so many now.

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Thanks for all of these photos Sigiriya (great name by the way, stunning place). I’m now in my 40s so I have really vivid memories as a kid walking through Lincoln as it looked in the 80s.
 
The bridge that you show was built in 1958 to replace an earlier bridge - the Mayfield Bridge. You can see the old bridge was less "accessible".

The building beyond it was the New Bridge Inn which closed in 1939. It later housed the market office.

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The Witch and Wardrobe pub had been the A1 Fish Restaurant for many years. The building had been the Liberal Club, being replaced in the early 1890s by the one in St Swithins Square.


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Sigiriya said:
Lincoln could indeed be ******* dangerous. I was into the heavy rock scene in those days and dressed accordingly. Me and my mates in our little group may have looked a bit on the grotty and outlandish side, but none of us would have hurt a fly (can't claim that for everybody). It was quite extraordinary, however, how many people seemed to want to do us physical damage, quite often in broad daylight in Lincoln High Street on a Saturday afternoon. We called the High Street "Bandit Territory", and not without reason!
That said, Saturday afternoons could be fun. Our drinking den of choice in those days was Trilbys (later known as Rothschilds and Lasers), now Sugercubes. For a time it was the New Penny, before we settled on The Falstaff. I can remember staggering out of these venues on countless occasions and going for one cup of tea between 40 of us in Littlewoods café. During the summer the lads used to jump off High Bridge into the Witham before the powers that be put a stop to that. Dangerous days, but fun days as well!
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My last memory of Sugarcubes was four fights starting almost simultaneously and converging into one mass brawl. That was early 2000s. I doubt it ever got any better!
 
I have the pub sign from the witch and the wardrobe in my garage. Got it from a chap in nuneaton via ebay in 2016. My late granddad used to drink in there when Nanna went into town. I have the Mansfield one which I think was replaced by Marstons.

wasnt the waterside construction delayed as they found a Viking longboat?
 
bristolimp said:
I have the pub sign from the witch and the wardrobe in my garage. Got it from a chap in nuneaton via ebay in 2016. My late granddad used to drink in there when Nanna went into town. I have the Mansfield one which I think was replaced by Marstons.

wasnt the waterside construction delayed as they found a Viking longboat?
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There was an archaeological dig on the site prior to construction work starting on the Waterside Centre, but I don't think a Viking Longboat was found. I'm pretty sure that they found a well preserved pair of medieval shoes, but that's not quite as exciting as a Viking Longboat!
 
Only a couple of photos today, this time of the Brayford area. The first shows a very cold and chilly Brayford. No road bridge over the Brayford then! The second show the old warehouse behind the Marina, as it was then. No sign of the University and its associated buildings at this time.
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Sigiriya said:
There was an archaeological dig on the site prior to construction work starting on the Waterside Centre, but I don't think a Viking Longboat was found. I'm pretty sure that they found a well preserved pair of medieval shoes, but that's not quite as exciting as a Viking Longboat!
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that must have been my childhood imagination then!
 
In the old museum, near St. Swithins 60's, they had bits of a Viking boat in a display case I seem to remember.
 
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